


Naive

by littlewaterfall



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Michelle Jones, BAMF Michelle Jones, Bets & Wagers, F/M, Good Friend Ned Leeds, High School, Mentioned May Parker (Spider-Man), Michelle Jones is a Little Shit, Ned Leeds Needs a Hug, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, New York City, Peter Parker Feels, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker in Love, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Peter Parker is a Mess, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie), Precious Ned Leeds, Precious Peter Parker, Spider-Man References
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-22 18:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19969663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlewaterfall/pseuds/littlewaterfall
Summary: (Before Infinity War) MJ approaches Peter with an unusual proposition.





	1. The Deal

**Author's Note:**

> a/n: This is ever so slightly inspired by Naive by The Kooks since I had it on repeat, but I’m not including this in the songfic series. This is, though, definitely inspired by this prompt: “My mom’s forcing me to be social this weekend, but I really just want to finish my book, so I’ll pay you twenty bucks and a pack of gum to tell her we hung out.” Created by writing-and-nutmeg on Tumblr.
> 
> pairing: PeterxMJ
> 
> word count: 929
> 
> summary: (Before Infinity War) MJ approaches Peter with an unusual proposition.
> 
> WARNINGS: none

It was a Friday morning and Peter was getting his books out of his locker while Ned talked to him about their weekend plans.  
“So I’m thinking we split the check 50/50,” Ned said. “If I get the tickets, then you can get the snacks and drinks and that should level out.”  
“If the food goes even a cent over what the tickets cost,” Peter warned. “Just remember, I know where you sleep.”  
“Uh, jokes on you.” Ned made a face at him. “My dad nailed the windowsill closed.”  
“Sure,” Peter nodded. “That’ll definitely keep me from, oh I don’t know, knocking on the front door.”  
Ned opened his mouth to retort, but then his eyes caught something over Peter’s shoulder and his mood completely changed. He smiled and waved as he said: “Hey MJ!”  
Peter’s head whipped around and he came face to face with the tall, dark, and uniquely beautiful girl with messy hair and a Joan of Arc t-shirt.  
“H-Hey MJ,” Peter stammered, then cleared his throat. His voice was ever so slightly deeper when he spoke again. “What’s up?”  
“Nice save,” Ned muttered behind his back and Peter swatted him away.  
MJ had one eyebrow raised in silent judgement.  
“Well that was weird,” she said matter-of-factly, then turned her attention on Peter. “I have a proposition for you.”  
Peter’s eyes widened.  
“Or well,“ MJ continued. “It’s more of an anti-proposition. A rejection, if you will.”  
Peter’s expression fell a little, his eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “What is it?” he asked somewhat hesitantly.  
“My mom’s forcing me to be social this weekend,” MJ said. “But I really just want to finish my book, so I’ll pay you twenty bucks to tell her we hung out.”  
Peter considered this.  
“I’ll take that deal,” Ned interjected.  
MJ looked at him, her face expressionless. “This doesn’t concern you,” she said flatly and focused back on Peter. She waited a moment for his response, but none came. “Do we have a deal?”  
Peter looked up at her. Her eyes flitted back and forth between his, clearly impatient.  
A corner of Peter’s mouth turned up a bit and he shifted his stance as he crossed his arms.  
“No.”  
MJ’s eyes widened. “No?”  
“I think you’re holding out on me,” Peter stated. “It clearly needs to be me since you turned down Ned so quickly, so twenty is not enough. What else you got?”  
“I can take Ned’s deal,” MJ said firmly.  
“No you can’t,” he corrected. “It’s no longer on the table.”  
She glared at him, but he didn’t cower.  
MJ groaned and slipped her backpack off then started rifling through the pockets. A minute later, she resurfaced with a handful of loot.  
She opened her palm and displayed the goods: a bent paperclip, a tarnished nickel, a can tab, and a stick of gum.  
Peter surveyed the goods then narrowed his eyes as he raised them to MJ’s.  
“What am I worth to you?” he asked.  
She shrugged and picked up the stick of gum with her other hand.  
“That.”  
Ned shook his head slowly. “Cold.”  
Peter gestured at the gum. “How old is it?”  
“I dunno,” MJ shrugged again. “But it’s what I got. Take it or leave it.”  
Peter paused for a second, then sighed. “All of it, plus the twenty, and you’ve got a deal.”  
She gave him the items, then pulled a twenty from her back pocket, slapped it down on his palm, and shook his hand.  
“Pleasure doing business with you.” She smiled a tight and brief, but clearly pleased with herself smile. Then she let go, turned on her heel, and disappeared into the crowded hallway.  
Ned walked around so he stood in front of Peter and looked at the contents in his hand.  
“Well,” he said, pausing after the word, waiting for Peter to look at him. “So, we’re getting Delmar’s on the way home. You’re buying.”  
Before Peter could say something about saving it for the movie, Ned too turned on his heel and walked to class.  
When Peter returned home that evening, he had a buck fifty-five and the stick of gum left. The paperclip came in handy during Physics and he overheard a girl at lunch telling her friends she was collecting can tabs for cancer research, so he gave it to her.  
He’d only just dropped his backpack on the ground beside his desk when Aunt May knocked on his door frame and popped her head around the corner.  
“Hey so,” she said as she stepped inside his room without waiting for Peter to tell her she could come in. “I got a call from Michelle’s mom today,” she continued. “She asked if I could drive you and Michelle around tomorrow. Are you going on a date?” She made a face at him, and Peter’s eyes widened.  
“What?! No-“  
But May interrupted before he could explain the situation.  
“I told Mrs. Jones that we’d swing by and pick up Michelle around 8, sound good?”  
Peter opened his mouth, but she cut him off again.  
“Ooo, I bet I still have some old cologne you could use for your date.” She winked at him, then walked out.  
“May, I-“  
“Oh, and I’m making meatloaf tonight,” she shouted back down the hall.  
A few moments passed as Peter just stood there, shocked, but as reality started to sink in, he raised his hands and frustratedly combed them through his hair.  
“I can’t believe this is happening,” he grumbled under his breath as he closed the door. “MJ’s gonna kill me.”


	2. Do Not Disturb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MJ's weekend plans are interrupted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pairing: PeterxMJ
> 
> summary: MJ's weekend plans are interrupted.
> 
> word count: 1019
> 
> WARNINGS: slight swearing, but barely lol

Saturday evening was peaceful and quiet. Or, at least, it was as quiet as you could get in New York. The sounds of the traffic were incessant, and someone was always shouting somewhere in the neighborhood, but the house was calm. So, MJ was trying to make the most of it before the storm kicked up again.

She’d gone to the laundromat earlier that day and washed her favorite throw blanket that her grandmother had knitted and bundled all her clothes up in it, so it absorbed all their heat on the way home. It was still warm when she got back to her room. She dumped the bag out on the floor and took the blanket and her book to her favorite spot in the house: the overstuffed armchair in the corner of her bedroom. She had to replace the bulb in the lamp, but then she curled up crisscross-applesauce in the chair, wrapped in her blanket, and returned to her bookmarked page.

At precisely 7:55pm, there was a knock at the front door.

MJ was, at that point, stretched out across the chair with her legs bent at the knee, dangling over one armrest and her head resting on the other, on top of a small handmade throw pillow. She ignored the visitor’s call and continued her book. It was probably the neighbors asking if they could borrow some sugar again.

There was another knock at the door.

“Michelle!” her mom shouted from the kitchen. “The door!”

MJ dropped her book on top of her face, so the open pages masked her.

“MICHELLE!!”

She groaned loudly and rolled off the chair onto the floor.

“COMING!” she screamed back.

She trudged to the front of the house and, without glancing through the curtains to see who stood on the stoop, she turned the knob and pulled open the metal door.

“Peter?”

The boy looked at her with wide brown eyes and pointed at the button by the door frame.

“Your doorbell doesn’t work,” he said.

MJ nodded once. “Yeah?”

“I think it shocked me,” he added.

“Good,” she said. He stared at her, dumbfounded, and she stared back at him, her eyebrows raised. “What the are you doing here?”

“Oh um,” Peter stumbled and smiled uncomfortably. “We’re hanging out, remember? You told me to pick you up at eight…”

“Uh no, you idiot,” MJ said flatly. “I did not say pick me up at eight. How the hell did you come to that conclusion?”

“We _texted_. _Yesterday_ ,” Peter told her, emphasizing some words. “I texted you again when we left.”

She shook her head, slowly. She wasn’t following. “We?”

He turned slightly and gestured to where his aunt was sitting in her car at the curb. Aunt May waved at them, her smile beaming.

“Can you be ready in ten minutes?” Peter asked while looking down at MJ’s sock covered feet.

She sighed. “I’ll be down in five.”

MJ went back up to her room and got ready quickly, which mainly consisted of putting on her shoes, then she found her phone. When she clicked it on, the most recent notification was Peter’s texts.

**CODE RED**

**Your mom called my aunt and now we have to hang out tomorrow**

**We’re picking you up at 8**

**I’m really sorry. I tried. I did**

**Also I already spent the $20 with Ned but you can have the gum back**

**Sorry**

_He tried?_ She thought to herself as she shoved her phone, book, wallet, and a few other things into her shoulder bag. _Sure he did. Tried so hard, his aunt had to drag him here against his will._

When MJ came back to the door, she called him out on this.

“Clearly,” she said cynically. “You didn’t try hard enough to get a hold of me. In the future, call me. I have my phone on Do Not Disturb almost all the time, but your calls should go through.”

Peter knitted his eyebrows together. “Really?”

She nodded.

“Don’t you have to manually select who you let call you on Do Not Disturb?”

MJ’s eyes widened subtly so she quickly blinked, hoping Peter didn’t notice.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I have the whole team set to be able to call me.”

“Oh,” Peter nodded absentmindedly.

They walked over to the Parker’s car and Peter volunteered to let MJ take the front seat, but she declined so he climbed in the backseat with her.

“Hey Michelle!” Aunt May smiled at her in the rearview mirror.

“Hi Mrs. Parker,” she smiled back shyly. “You can call me MJ.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “MJ…Peter…” She glanced back and forth at them and they looked at her with confused stares. She smiled again, clearly too excited about tonight. “What do you guys have planned for your _hang out_?

MJ side-eyed Peter. He cringed and mouthed “sorry.” She narrowed her eyes at him as they pulled away from the curb.

“Where are we going?” Aunt May asked again.

“I was thinking the library.” Peter glanced at MJ, an apologetic smile on his face. “It’s nice and quiet. Maybe we could get some studying done.”

MJ smiled slightly back at him, but then May spoke up and her face fell.

“I admire your dedication,” May said. “Really, I do, but it’s Saturday. Let’s go somewhere fun! How bout pizza?”

“I already ate,” MJ informed the car.

“Us too,” Peter mumbled, and the two kids laughed lightly. When they calmed down, Peter looked back up to his aunt. “We would like to go to the library, May. Seriously.”

Aunt May glanced at him in the mirror, but Peter had a determined and sincere look on his face. He really wanted this. MJ did too.

“Okay,” May said finally and turned on her blinker when they came to the next intersection so she could head for the library.

MJ glanced at Peter. He was looking at his hands.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

He looked up at her and she felt the corners of her mouth turn up into a small smile.

“Don’t worry about it.” Peter smiled back at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, one more part. I'm crazy busy this week, but fingers crossed I have it posted by Tuesday night. Friday at the latest. See ya soon! :P

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2′s hopefully dropping before Saturday. See ya then! :P


End file.
